The work place continues to undergo rapid change partially driven by the advance in computer technology and partially driven by the increasing recognition that the work space must respond to the needs of the workers. Office panelling systems or office desking systems used to subdivide an office space and continue to have a place in an office design. However, it is now recognized that in addition to furniture which is more or less fixed, it is desirable to have some furniture which is highly mobile and can complement the fixed panelling system or desking system. This mobile furniture is designed to be repositioned on a daily basis or at any point in time by the user for his own use in his particular work space or possibly to be moved to cooperate with other mobile furniture to form a temporary meeting area. Most furniture systems today recognize that fixed office panels, stand alone generally fixed office furniture, and highly mobile office furniture all have their place in the work environment.
One of the problems with highly mobile furniture, is the ability to provide power and communication cabling to such furniture given the position thereof is not fixed. Lap top computers with their own battery supply, partially address this need, however, this is often insufficient. For example if mobile tables are gathered as a conference table with several users, it would be highly desirable to have convenient power and communication capability the same as existing office systems.
Some office furniture systems have tried to address the above problem by providing generally fixed column members extending from floor to ceiling or merely extending a certain height above the floor which have internal conduits for feeding electrical power to electrical outlets accessible at the exterior of the members. Unfortunately, these structures are fixed and severely restrict many of the advantages of mobile tables as they have to be located at one of these members if power and communication capabilities are desired.
The present invention seeks to overcome a number of these difficulties and provide a solution which is flexible and can cooperate with the work environment where the power and communication capability has several different source locations, all of which require a specialized structure to cooperate therewith.